Since time immemorial, or at least last November, mankind has pondered a single question: would it really be that bad if Arc Raiders let you carry over a few blueprints when you wipe your account by completing an Expedition? It turns out this debate has been going on even longer than we thought. Developer Embark Studios asked the same thing during the game's development. Its answer: eh, maybe it could be fine eventually?
That's according to Arc Raiders design director Virgil Watkins, who discussed the blueprint and Expedition systems in an interview with PC Gamer. Getting straight to business, my raiding buddy Tim Clark asked Watkins if we might see a way to preserve a limited number of blueprints across Expeditions.
"That was an idea we even had before launch," Watkins explained. "It's a tricky situation because the blueprints in particular are such a power elevation; now you have the autonomy to craft this thing very deliberately, and does that fit in? And then as well, if we ever make – and we have made – adjustments to the blueprint drop rates and things like that."
The Arc Raiders blueprint market changed dramatically after the release of the Cold Snap update. Even with a correcting nerf to drop rates, blueprints became significantly more common from a range of sources. There are still some chase rares – hello Tempest, my old friend – but most blueprints can be found semi-reliably nowadays. But that's still no guarantee.
Looking at guarantees, Watkins said it's not "off the table" for Embark to add a way to keep blueprints between Expeditions. "I wouldn't say no to any idea along those lines," he said. "It's mostly about how you balance what is kind of part of the core run-up through progression, and blueprints are a significant part of that, of actually getting them."
However, Watkins does return his gaze to the root of the issue: just how rare and random blueprints are to begin with. You can only do so much to tilt the odds in your favor, even by targeting specific areas or following soft community wisdom like doing Blue Gate night raids between the hours of 4 and 6pm on Thursday when it's raining. Please bro, I swear it works, I got the snaphook first try after all the other tries. And so on.
"I wonder if we can address that particular pain point by additional changes or systemic changes to how blueprints are found, acquired, or learned, rather than needing to feel like they have to come along with the Expedition system," Watkins added. "So you know, giving you better or more autonomy over how you acquire blueprints, for example, might alleviate some of that concern on that side of things. So I don't want to overburden the Expedition system with things that we might not want to do."
A more deterministic way to acquire specific blueprints could fill the void felt post-Expedition while also contributing to the normal progression of Arc Raiders, so you wouldn't hear me complain. But if changes are coming in this space, they're a long way out. For now, we've got the Arc Raiders Shrouded Sky update coming next week.
